“I’m not discouraged. The guys are playing hard. We did a lot of good things tonight,” said Rich Kacmarynski, Eagle head coach. “Sigourney/Keota has a good team and run the single-wing offense, which was tough to stop.”

The Savages took a 7-0 lead, but the Eagles responded with a 10-play drive, capped by a two-yard touchdown run by Branderhorst with 9:58 left in the second quarter. Sigourney/Keota was up 13-7 and Pella Christian was on the march.

“We had a strong drive going, and it was first down on their 20 but a holding penalty threw us out of our flow. We never got it back,” Kacmarynski said. “We also had a key interception in the second quarter.”

The Savages took full advantage of the Eagle miscues, scoring another touchdown before halftime to lead 27-7. They took the second-half kickoff and scored the lone touchdown of the third quarter.

Brandenhorst ran 14 yards to paydirt for the Eagles at the 7:52 mark of the fourth quarter, making it 33-14. Sigourney/Keota answered back with its final touchdown three minutes later.

The Eagles mounded a five-play, 55-yard drive for a touchdown. Howerzyl plowed over the goal line from four yards out for the score. Jacob Brouwer kicked his third extra point of the game for Pella Christian.

Howerzyl rushed for 98 yards on 24 carries, and Miles Wichhart had 63 yards on 12 carries. Colten Collins threw for 51 yards, going 5-of-12 passing. Carson Dugger caught two passes for 16 yards, while Howerzyl had a 20-yard catch, and Jake De Ruiter had one reception for 15 yards.

Zach Van Zee racked up 10 solo tackles and two assisted tackles for the Eagles’ defense. David Kacmarynski had eight solo stops. Howerzyl had four solos and two assisted tackles. Cooner Milligan had four unassisted tackles.

The loss dropped the Eagles to 3-2. Earlier this week, Pella Christian was awarded a 1-0 win because of a forfeit ruling by the Iowa High School Athletic Association. Prairie City-Monore had beaten Pella Christian on Sept. 7, but found out it allowed an ineligible player participate in that game, and reported it to the IHSAA.

Pella Christian returns to Class 1A, District 7 play this Friday at home in Pella against Ogden.